Journalists and reporters are evidently not well respected in Malaysia despite their crucial role and jobs they do to ensure that the rakyat is well-informed.
From being denied from asking questions to having to face politicians who answer phone calls during press conferences, it appears that there is a never ending list.
In a similar incident which happened yesterday (January 5), a number of journalists took to Twitter to complain and criticise Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail for showing up to a press conference several hours late.
For the press conference, members of the press were supposed to show up at 2:30pm at a hall in the building of the Ministry of Human Resources.
Despite showing up on time, it was revealed by several members of the press that the Saifuddin had only showed up slightly past 5:30pm, making it more than 3 hours after the registration of the press.
Journalists and reporters were obviously dissatisfied by the Minister’s lack of tardiness and took to Twitter to condemn him.
“Have some f*cking respect for people’s time and effort.”
One commented, “You can easily measure how good a Minister is by his punctuality.”
Meanwhile, other netizens told the reporters that they should’ve just staged a walkout after an hour.
Apology from Saifuddin
The matter managed to capture the attention of Saifuddin himself who took to social media to apologise to members of the press several hours later.
In his tweet, Saifuddin said, “Regarding the delay of the press conference this afternoon, I am aware of the complaints of fellow media practitioners.”
“Media invitations are managed by other parties. I attend meetings & press conferences with the timeline scheduled for me. But whatever the reason, I personally apologise to my media friends.”
We hope that this serves as a lesson to always be punctual for press conferences and not to take the time and efforts of media practitioners for granted.
Also read: “Not good practice” – M’sians Slam Politicians For Answering Phone Calls During Press Conferences
